Single player, by 
Itâs always good to see people release single player episodes. This particular one is quite good too, and I found it enjoyable to play. It comes from Snooze, who is perhaps best known for his CTF packs, New Ages I, II and III. This is his first major release that is single player, and I hope itâs not going to be his last.
The best part about this pack it its atmosphere. It is set almost entirely within a series of dreams, and because of that the levels take on a somewhat surreal tone. Snooze does a very good job at conveying this theme, with the eyecandy being a particular strong point. In some places it does get a bit weird, but dreams arenât always normal and logical. One thing I thought was fairly impressive is how some of the levels have different areas that look very different, with the background transitioning and the style of the foreground also changing. Most people would just start a new level to convey this effect, so having it happen within a single level makes it very neat.
The gameplay is also good, though it does suffer a bit due to a few problems. One in particular that I noticed is that the instant-death pits are often hard to spot. You never know when a drop is going to be fatal, and because of that the levels can be a bit more frustrating than they have to be.
I also find that in an action oriented pack, having a QoB-style level early on is a bit disruptive to the overall flow of the levels. Iâm not a big fan of maze levels, and this one in particular is difficult due to a lot of obscure triggers. The goal is to find 10 coins. I couldnât, so I settled with 5, then hit the checkpoint, killed myself, and grabbed those 5 again. Thatâs a bit of an exploit, but at least I didnât have to cheat. Call it an alternate solution to the puzzle.
I also thought that the hell level was a bit confusing. Itâs more straightforward than the QoB one, but the layout is very open, and I found myself at times not sure where to go next. Also, at the end you wind up with a checkpoint and a dead end. It turns out thereâs a hidden tunnel by there, but I couldnât find it at first.
The final level is a bit different from the others, in that it is more puzzle focused. In a way itâs similar to the QoB level early on, but itâs a lot more action oriented, and I at least enjoyed it (though it took me a while to figure out where to go).
Other than that all of the levels are quite well designed, fun, and challenging. And, due to the very original visual design, youâll always want to know whatâs next.
Like snooze says in the download description, itâs probably a good idea to play this on easy mode unless you are pretty good at single player.
One additional comment Iâd like to make is that I found it a bit annoying how the main character (and narrator) of the episode often comments on what he sees. Sometimes this is alright, but sometimes itâs completely unnecessary, because the player can quite easily see what the level looks like. I also thought it was a bit funny how the narrator sometimes comments on how cool/beautiful a certain scene looks. These comments seem to pop up fairly randomly, and come across as the authour of the level complementing himself. I thought this felt a bit arrogant.
Anyway, this is still a great pack, and I highly recommend you download it as soon as possible, since you never know when itâs going to be deleted in a fit of rage.
